Hey folks, it's that guy you don't know! It's been a long, long time since I've touched this account, but I've had Minecraft on the mind lately, and that got me thinking about all of you. I saw this thread, and, well, I just had to write something up. For anyone that might actually remember me: whaddup! Sorry for another lengthy post from me! Here's a quote box for formatting purposes:
During that time, I had the privilege of running a character that rubbed shoulders with the original Mage's guild, Ascended, Undead (but mostly their proxies for the sake of my character's health), and just about every shady entity that happened to be around before the fall. I funded rebellions, turned friend against friend, and watched many people's characters die.
I had no special permissions, no special friends, no magic, no martial ability. All I had on my side was typing speed, a decent vocabulary, and time. My character was, on paper, as normal as they come. My goal with him was to see just how far I could get with words alone, without people actually knowing much at all about my character. To one person, he might've been a wealthy aristocrat, a dear confidant to another, a snake to one, and a spy to the rest.
It was a blast!
Since then, I've written what can only be described as a wasteful number of words on these forums attempting to move the dialogue in a direction that would break the status quo and recapture those glory days. In that regard, I'd say I've largely failed. So, why say anything now? I haven't logged on much in several years now, but I can tell just by glancing through this thread that pretty much all the same issues are negatively affecting the players. Those being:
an enormous map spreading the playerbase too thin
feature creep and amped up restrictions
Discord of the Craft and player cliques
inattentive, overloaded, and perhaps even corrupt staff
a general lack of direction
an unwillingness to "kill your babies"
I imagine your typical new player has zero clue what's going on as far as current events go, no way to interact with the game as they might normally expect, nobody to talk to, and not enough time on their hands to no-life it until a character arc reveals itself. For all intents and purposes, they are Other, and will no doubt feel unwanted and unnecessary. This person is up against established players who, historically speaking, don't log into the server, but instead control the political machine through Discord, google docs, and regurgitated memes shared between friends. If they're lucky, and if they stalk slightly more established characters long enough to stop talking in RP and start talking in OOC, they can start their way toward something that looks like progress.
Meanwhile, the forums are likely on fire for this or for that, and much of the staff's time is spent on the site resolving whatever they can, or doing the best they can do to blend into the background while logged in and getting whisper spammed by randos.
I don't know know who the big names are nowadays, but the behavior is probably similar if not the same, even if the seats have new butts in them.
A new player deals with all of this, only if they can manage to navigate the massive map with which they have no familiarity, and no context to guide them.
Is there a solution?
Maybe? Like I said, these issues are so old they're basically tradition, but I'd say there's light at the end of the tunnel, yet. I'm a fan of extreme solutions, so my suggestion would be more seasonal content. You're likely familiar with what I mean; temporary and enclosed periods at the end of which almost every single detail is refreshed and returned to zero.
You've almost experienced this in the form of new maps, but that solution never quite hits the mark does it? It fails to fully reset everything. All of the nations, families, legacies, friend groups, and even some characters survive from map to map, bringing the same problems to a new country. We need damn near complete historical erasure:
Obliterate the families, the rich, the poor, the popular, and the obscure
Reestablish lore going forward, and give yourself permission to bury old lore for something new
Refuse the continuation of any stories from season to season (smaller characters will leak through, but major ones cannot)
Refuse power to those players who have held it in the previous season
Wipe out inventories and item storage
Consider outright resetting the map to day 1 each season
And that's not all. The staff needs to offer a baseline for what, exactly, the world is and make sure everyone abides by that vision. You're the Dungeon Masters. You decide what the game is and what it is not. This means you'll need to:
Reestablish and encourage social behaviors through video guides
Reestablish narrative themes through video guides
Reestablish histories and potential player backgrounds as necessary
Seed important secrets throughout the world to give players a mystery they can own
Push players toward a goal as a whole, give them something to be afraid of, and don't be afraid to be the villain
Research how to DM
Watch Season 1 of Westworld and write down everything Anthony Hopkins says
Don't forget to market each seasonal refresh
Do the above and you're less likely to play the same game that's been played by everyone here for the last however many years. Just as well, you'll provide many more points of entry for new players, as they'll be closer to equal footing than ever before.
Thank you to anyone who reads all of this. I had a lot of fun writing it all out and thinking about old times.
Yours truly,
Someone who doesn't need to read up on current events to know what's going down